Rabbit-Proof Fence (star)(star)(star)

Robert K. ElderCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Portrayals of native populations--be they Aboriginal Australians or Native American--on film have been spotty at best. For the longest time, it seemed native cultures fit into two categories in cinema: heartless savages or wise, mystical shamans. The former was the gutter, the latter an apologist's pedestal. Few filmmakers have thought to show them as human beings.

Filmmaker Phillip Noyce ("Patriot Games" and "The Quiet American") seems conscious of this fact in "Rabbit-Proof Fence," the story of two "half-caste" Aboriginal sisters and a cousin's flight from internment schools to their families in northern Australia. Between 1905 and 1971, the practice of removing "mixed-race" children from their families of origin by the government was commonplace.

A road movie without a road, Noyce's taut storytelling and Christopher Doyle's near-ethereal cinematography tie character to landscape, setting vast, desolate vistas against a futile, 1,500-mile long "rabbit-proof fence." Symbolic of cultural vanity, the fence also represents bureaucracy disconnected from its own people.

Noyce's use of spare dialogue and understated, powerful performances underline his characters' indomitable force of will.

"Rabbit-Proof Fence" is directed by Phillip Noyce, written by Christine Olsen, based on the book by Doris Pilkington. Running time: 1:34. MPAA rating: PG.